The 4 Secrets of Successful IB DP Students

For some students the IB Diploma doesn't seem to pose much of a challenge. It seems to be not particularly challenging for them. For other students the IB Diploma is a big challenge. It can cause stress, it can cause a lot of trouble, it seems to be a lot of work for them. What 4 things do (nearly) all successful IBDP students share ?

What are the differences between DP students who get high scores, and those who get low scores ?

I thought it would be useful to look at what the differences between students who find the DP fairly straightforward and other students who find the DP very challenging. Maybe, we could think of this as looking at the differences between those students who get high scores and those students who get the lowest scores.

Am I qualified to comment on this ?

I was an IB Diploma Coordinator for 15 years in two large IB schools.I have worked with, and looked after, a lot of IB Diploma students. I've seen a lot of students go through this programme (approximately 2,000 DP students).

And I think that most people have got the wrong idea about what leads to success in the IB Diploma. So today we're going to look at four secret weapons of successful IB students.

Secret #4: Organisation

Okay, Organisation isn't much of a secret, but it's foundational, so I have to include it. In organisation we also include study skills and study management, and all of those AtL type things. You've got to be organised in the DP course. You've got to work backwards from deadlines to make sure that you meet the deadlines, there are a lot of individual assignments that need submitting, keeping on top of those submission dates is key. As such, there's a lot of learning to do. It is taxing from that point of view, but it's entirely manageable with some proper organisation.

So using Google Calendar, or some other electronic management system, will help you to hit those deadlines when they're coming up. Working backwards from the deadlines using those electronic tools is absolutely crucial. Making sure that you've got the right study skills and the right study habits so that you don't have to keep going back over work and keep having to redo it is key. A sort of one touch approach is what I would call it. And if you can do those things then you will stay well organised, and you're going to get through the learning that's required. Most importantly you're going to make the most of the learning opportunities.

Everyone goes on about study skills. I have it as number four on my list because I think there are three more important things than just organisation and study skills.

Secret#3: Teamwork skills

You are doing this diploma with other students. You're doing this diploma in classes with all of your peers. The cumulative power of all of your skills and your knowledge and your effort is greater than any individual's power. The total power is greater than all the individuals added together. The learning capacity of the functional group is synergistic. So teamwork is absolutely crucial on the IB diploma.

You need to make use of all of the other people who are in the class who are working with you. You need to draw upon each other's relative skills. Some people have got skills in one area, other people have got skills in another area. Put them together and boom, you have magic! So teamwork skills is absolutely crucial. And in good IB schools, the teachers will be designing learning so that you're building those teamwork skills and you're building the teams in your classes as you go along.

Secret#2: Communication skills

As an IB diploma student, your communication skills are crucial for a number of reasons:

Number one, you have to communicate with lots of different people. You've got to communicate with the examiners in written and oral form in the exams. You have to communicate with the other students. But most crucially, you have to communicate with your teachers. And this is why as an IBDP coordinator, I used to find that the students who were successful were the ones who were able to communicate with their teachers. They were able to explain to their teachers what they understood and what they didn't understand. They were able to explain to their teachers when they were able to meet deadlines and when they weren't able to meet deadlines, and why they sometimes were not able to meet deadlines. They were able to explain to their teachers what they needed from learning, they could help heir teachers to provide them with the type of learning that they did well in. Successful students also needed to communicate with their parents, describing what they needed in their lives, in their home life and so on and so on. So, communication skills are really key, and they don't just come naturally. It's something that you have to practice. It's something that I'm practicing now. It's something I've been practicing all of my life. Being able to work out in a systematic and clear way what it is you're trying to say and then being able to say it in a calm and measured way is a really crucial skill.

Secret #1: Knowledge of Self, incl Emotional Intelligence.

The most important secret to success for the IBDP student is knowledge of self. It's emotional self knowledge, and what's often called Emotional Intelligence. This is being able to understand your own emotions, being able to communicate those emotions to others, being able to understand the causes of those emotions and being able to understand other people's emotions. Further it is the capability to communicate other people's emotions, and to understand the causes of other people's emotions.

Why is emotional intelligence so important ?

Well, as you go through the course, you're gonna be experiencing lots of different emotions. Sometimes really, really great when you're getting good marks, you're achieving, or you're finding awe and wonder and inspiration in your learning. And then sometimes you may feel lower, much lower even, Maybe you feel disappointment or frustration when you're being tested, or when there's a lot of work to do. Sometimes you may feel low when you don't quite understand what the teachers want you to understand. Being able to recognise these emotional changes, and understanding the causes of these emotional changes, is really key to helping yourself to feel better.

Secondly, once you're able to recognise these emotional changes and you're able to label them, then you're able to have greater control over them. And once you've got more control over them, then you're going to be more stable. You can adjust your emotional state so that it fits with your learning needs and it fits with whatever's going on at that point in the course. And that's how you start to get a control over things like anxiety and stress and so on and so on. I often find that people think that just working harder or working more is gonna help them to achieve better and therefore they'll then experience less stress or less anxiety. And that's not the case. I think that working harder and working more often makes the student more anxious because they're more tired and they don't necessarily have the attainment or the achievement that they think they were gonna get. And yeah, and it just makes it harder for them. So my recommendation is don't just work harder on your subject work, but work harder on yourself. Try to get a better understanding of self so that you can get a better understanding of those emotions, which then mean that you don't feel so stressed and anxious, which then means that you learn better and you don't have to work as hard. In fact, you can work less hard on the subject if you work more hard on yourself type thing. You get my idea.

So there we have it. My four secret weapons for the IB Diploma student. My four secret weapons for success in the IB Diploma.

I hope that you found this post useful. Are you interested in this wider IBDP type content rather than just TOK content? Are you interested in ways in which you can achieve and think about the IB Diploma? Please let me know in the comments.

Daniel, Bangkok, Sept 2023